Speed & Simplicity - The Key for Social Shoppers

Omnichannel retail strategies have been much on the thoughts of retailers over the last couple of years because of an increased focus on ‘social shopping’. Omnichannel strategies aim to create a seamless consumer experience across different platforms. One of the platforms that is being utilised more often is social media. Social shopping refers to consumers who use social media spaces to share coupons, reviews, purchases and more in order to help with their own and others’ future retail experiences.

Recent apps such as Like2Buy combine the huge popularity of social media with a purchase platform. Like2Buy is now incorporated with many companies’ Instagram accounts which allows users to click on a picture that they like which will take them immediately to the brand page for purchasing. With Instagram getting more than 75 million users daily, it could be a huge source of revenue. Getting a seamless transition from picture to buying is vital. Being on a social media site also allows consumers to see the popularity of the product. Instagram allows users to like pictures and seeing that a product is popular will go a long way for persuading a customer to buy.

This quick link between picture and purchase shows the drive to create faster links and an easier experience for consumers. Social shoppers are notoriously impatient; slow websites and longwinded routes to purchase often means a higher probability that the customer will click off site and may in the future go elsewhere.

A survey carried out by Compuware showed that social media shoppers are influenced greatly by the speed and efficiency of online retail platforms. Around a third of survey participants expect a retail website to load in two seconds when using tablets, 24% expected loading in one second and 13% expect loading in less than a second. Obviously there is quite a large dependency on how good of a signal there is but it also shows the fickle nature of social shoppers. These statistics show how important navigation of an online retail platform is. Allowing users to move easily and quickly throughout different areas of a site can go a long way to retail customers. 46% of customers are more likely to go to a competitor’s website if they have a bad experience on a website.

Catering to the needs of social shoppers and boosting omnichannel retail strategies could really help to boost retail sales. The majority of social shoppers are millennials between aged 18-24; this generation of consumers have grown up with the internet and expect more now from online retail. With the wealth of information available, online retailers should use this to their advantage and put social shopping as a priority for the future of their omnichannel retail strategies.

About the Author: Harry Kempe, a marketing intern at IIR USA, who works on various aspects of the industry including social media, marketing analysis and media. He is a recent graduate of Newcastle University who previously worked for EMAP Ltd. and WGSN as a marketing assistant on events such as the World Architecture Festival, World Retail Congress and Global Fashion Awards. He can be reached at hkempe@IIRUSA.com

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See Who's Attending APEX Europe

All Payments Expo Europe, the most relevant B2B payments and retail gathering in Europe, is shaping up to be the most relevant international community for prepaid, technology and merchants. This is where executives will hear all-new, peer-led case studies and insights AND get access to brand new consumer research.

Attracting attendees from 25+ countries, APEX Europe is where retail, mobile, data and technology intersect to grow connected commerce over the course of 3 days, 8+ hours of devoted networking and private, off-the-record sessions.

Here’s a sample of who you’ll get to meet while in Marbella:
3V Transaction Services • Airplus International SRL • Al Fardan Exchange • Alma D • ArbitorSports • Auctionata • Bankable • CardOneBanking • Cardwise • Carta Financial Services Ltd • Centigo AB • Coop Danmark • Dansk Supermarked A/S • Edgar Dunn & Company • eNett International • ePayService • Epipoli SpA • EuroCommerce • First Data • Flex e-card • FlexCard • Flex-e-Vouchers • Gap Inc •     Gemalto SA • Genesys • GKFX • Globoforce • Gruppo Poste Italiane • Gx • Hobbs Limited • Home Retail Group • Hotel Voucher Shop • IMA • Iqcard LLC •  John Lewis Partnership • Limonetik • Load & Go • Localz •Locke Lord • Marks & Spencer • Mercator Advisory Group •        MintCombine • MTACC Inc • Nordic Choice • Optimal Payments • Orwell • Payment Card Solutions • Payoneer EU Limited • PerfectCard • PMA Media Group • Polymath Consulting • PPRO • PSI-Pay Ltd • Raphaels Bank • Rapid Financial Solutions • Rideau Recognition Solutions • Riverbridge Partners LLC • Sears Holdings Corporation •Signet • Smart Concepts BV • TESCO Bank • Thames Card Technology Ltd • The Billing Project LLC • Ticket Surf • TJX Europe • TrustEu Affairs • TrustPay a s • Tuxedo Money Solutions • WEX Europe Ltd. • Yandex Money •Zalando SE

View Agenda | Speaker Faculty | Register

To join these peers and potential partners, sign up here. Register by 17 April to save up to €200! Use the code XU2940BLOG to save.

I look forward to seeing you in Marbella this coming May.

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All Payments Expo 2015 - Dates Announced

All Payments Expo is THE meeting place for the world's most successful merchants, payments companies, banks and technology firms. Industry leaders come together to create partnerships, launch new products, develop new business and explore innovations 

Download your APEX Sneak Peek here!

Top Reasons to Attend:

More Retailers

APEX attracts 300+ retailers annually to meet with vendors, re-sign contracts and scout out new potential vendors. Retailers also meet with peers for industry benchmarking, networking and to uncover tactics and challenges to grow programs across plastic and digital platforms.     

New Faces

You'll meet more executives who are relevant to all the areas of your business, with a flood of new participants. New attendees hail from retail's IT, Marketing and Corporate Strategy functions; new app developers (from wallets to loyalty); alternative financial services  CEOs, merchant acquirers; cyptocurrency players and more.

Secure Meetings

All APEX attendees will have access to the attendee list on our proprietary partneringONE platform, where you can vet potential partners and easily pre-arrange meetings. More than 5,000 meetings take place onsite annually.          

Growth Opportunities for Prepaid

With prepaid maturing, this is THE place to identify new customer segments, distribution opportunities and use cases that take your prepaid business into unsaturated territory.

Register now and you can save $400! Plus, as a blog reader you can receive an extra $100 off the standard rate, by using the code “XU2848BLOG”, a total savings of $500 - Register Now! 

See you in Las Vegas! 

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Live From All Payments Expo & FinTech Partnerships - Evening of Day 2

This evening at APEX we took a deeper look into - Fraud, Cyber Crime & Compliance 

Part 1:
Michelle Hemerley - FIS Enterprise Governance, Risk & Compliance (EGRC) Solutions

Compliance:

Compliance Management System:
- Board reporting and oversight
- Compliance program
   - policies and procedures
   - training
   - monitoring and corrective action
- Consumer complaint response
- Compliance audit

Be aware of any 3rd parties you have working for you. 


Part 2:
John Hagy - Metabank
Randy Gainer - Davis Wright Tremaine, LLP
Greg Quarles - H&R Block

Fraud & Cyber Crime - Emerging Payments Learning from Prepaid:

NBPCA - Educate, Advocate, Protect, and Promote

Prepaid Concerns and Common Theories: 
- Prepaid cards are unregulated
- They are anonymous
- They can be loaded with large amounts of funds
- Cards can be freely transported across boarders in large quantities as part of money laundering schemes

These are vast generalizations about prepaid cards as a whole.


Tax Fraud:

2012 - 1.2 million victims had tax refund taken
2013 - 1.6 million victims had tax refund taken

Thieves steal identity and opens GPR card, then he/she files fraudulent tax return for direct deposit, and then quickly withdraw all the funds.

Thank you to the outstanding panel and stay tuned for more live recaps from All Payments Expo & FinTech Partnerships!

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Test Drive an Expert: Amir Wain, i2c, Inc

Amir Wain is the CEO of i2c, Inc., he will be our featured expert on the topic of  Mobile, Processing at the 7th Annual Prepaid Expo, taking place this year in Las Vegas, Nevada, on March 12-13, 2012, where attendees will have the opportunity to schedule one-on-one meetings with Amir and other experts from an array of Prepaid specialties.

We had a chance to connect with Amir before we head out to Las Vegas next week. Here is what he told us:


What are the most pressing issues/trends in your subject area that prepaid professionals should consider and/or watch closely in the coming year?

1. Prepaid is much more than GPR or payroll cards; it is now a platform for payments innovation.

2. The global growth of prepaid will accelerate as companies take advantage of the vast untapped opportunities in markets outside the US

3. In the area of emerging and mobile payments, we will hear much more about user experience and innovations in POS infrastructure as opposed to breakthroughs in enabling technologies such as NFC.

What are the 3 most commonly asked questions/concerns you hear from clients?

1. What should be my mobile strategy?
2. What are the roles and responsibilities of various players in the value chain?
3. When I ask a capability question – every processor says yes; how do I select a processor?

What is/are the most common mistake(s) and oversight(s) people make in the prepaid space related to your area of specialization? 

1. Companies get lured by the sex appeal of “mobile” without thinking through all the details

2. Try to replace plastic with mobile without rethinking the product, work flows and how to leverage the advantages of this amazing device called mobile that all of us carry.

3. Focus on point solutions rather than a long-term product strategy.  

The typical discussion goes as follows:

Prospect: Do you have a mobile solution?
i2c: For what exactly?
Prospect: You know, a phone-based mobile solution.
i2c: For cardholder account access? For text alerts? Mobile wallet? Or for a loyalty and/or rewards program? How do you plan to use it?
Prospect: All of it, I guess? I'm starting a new business, and mobile is going to be the future.


About Amir:


Amir Wain is a pioneer in the prepaid card industry. He founded Innovative Private Limited, a software-development firm, in 1987 and led the development of the transaction processing platform FastCash. Propelled by the success of Innovative and expanding market opportunities, Wain founded i2c Inc. in 2001 and with his team, launched My Card PlaceSM (MCP), i2c’s customizable, feature-rich card processing platform. Under Wain, i2c has introduced a number of prepaid industry firsts, including its Campaign Manager, Giftogram and i-Coupons products.

He introduced the term “Prepaid2.0” to describe the change in mindset that embraces previously underserved cardholders as valuable customers and leads to comprehensive and flexible lifestyle products that incorporate value-added services and foster customer loyalty. At i2c, Wain continues to develop his vision with strategies to meet the needs of the evolving prepaid marketplace

Test Drive a  Mobile, Processing Expert 


You can schedule a meeting with Amir Wain at Prepaid Expo here, if you need help determining how to navigate and participate strategically in mobile and online options for your company.

To register, visit www.prepaidexpousa.com
Call: 1 888-670-8200                
Email: register@iirusa.com 

* Please mention your priority code when registering to save $100 off the standard and onsite rate: XU2548BLOG.

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Test Drive a Mobile Expert: Q&A with Ido Ophir, VP of Product Management, Personetics

At the 7th Annual Prepaid Expo taking place this year in Las Vegas, Nevada, on March 12-13, 2012, attendees will have the opportunity to schedule one-on-one meetings with experts from an array of Prepaid specialties.

We recently, interviewed Ido Ophir, VP of Product Management at Personetics, who will be our featured expert on the topic of Mobile: A New Type of Customer Service Experience. Here is what we discussed below:

What are the (1-3) most pressing issues/trends in your subject area that prepaid professionals should consider and/or watch closely in the coming year?

1. The need to be able to scale their business to address the market trend (prepaid is gaining market share). Are you ready?

2. Defining support strategies that deliver outstanding service – more economically

What are the 3 most commonly asked questions/concerns you hear from clients?

1. Now that prepaid cards are becoming more mainstream, the importance of quality service and delivery is paramount.
2. How can I do more with less (customer satisfaction vs. cost)

3. How will this product help me standout?

4. Can I deploy the same service in multiple channels?

What is/are the most common mistake(s) or oversight(s) people make in the prepaid space related to your area of specialization? Can you please share an anecdote as an example?

1. Not enough emphasis on customer service

2. Adding more and more IVR menu options instead of predicting the reason for a customer call - Too many customers getting lost in the IVR tree

3. Disparate and inconsistent customer experience across different channels

Anecdote:

Challenge: A large card issuer offers banking products, prepaid and virtual cards. There are more than 3 million cards in circulation and agreements with more than 100,000 merchants. The institution wanted to expand self service capabilities across all channels to differentiate itself on the quality of its customer experience. A call analysis in the prepaid card space revealed that 60% of calls were about reloading, PIN or password issues, general program questions, and balance/deposit/transactions questions.

Results: The Personetics Digital Banker was installed and within four weeks, call containment by the tool was at 40%. After 12 weeks, it was 50% and after 20 weeks, it was 55%. Customers who used the self-service option, very satisfied and ratings improved regarding customer experience.

About Ido:

Ido Ophir is responsible for bringing Personetics' products to market. Mr. Ophir oversees a team of subject matter experts and product managers, crafting a roadmap for Personetics technology and business solutions. Prior to joining Personetics, Mr. Ophir held the roles of VP of Strategic Accounts and VP of Product Management at Actimize. Prior to Actimize, Mr. Ophir was VP of Product Development at Always-On, Inc.

You can schedule a meeting with Ido Orphir at Prepaid Expo here, if you need help understanding how to provide an intelligent customer service interaction through technology that anticipates your customer’s needs.


To register, visit www.prepaidexpousa.com,
Call: 1 888-670-8200    
Email: register@iirusa.com

Please mention your priority code when registering to save $100 off the standard and onsite rate:
XU2548BLOG.

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Breakthrough Category in Mobile in 2012? Mobile Payments

According to the 2012 Mobile Predictions Annual Survey results released this week from Chetan Sharma Consulting, which drew from the collective insight of "executives, developers, and insiders from leading mobile companies and startups from across the value chain and around the world," the panel voted "mobile payments and mobile commerce as the top two category that will find their voice" this year and "messaging and commerce as the top two categories for the developing world while consumers in the developed nations will likely gravitate towards commerce and location based services" in 2012.

Meanwhile, the mobile payments/commerce space will be defined by Visa, Operators and Google, who will continue to drive the payments/commerce space, according to the survey panelists.

So what's going to work in the mobile payments space? It looks like the focus will be on "consumer involvement in 2012 within proximity based solutions and commerce of physical goods."

Do you agree with these results? What are your predictions? Tell us your thoughts below.

Source: www.chetansharma.com 


Download: 2012 Mobile Predictions Annual Survey PDF here.

Valerie M. Russo is a Senior Social Media Strategist at IIR USA with a technology, anthropology, marketing and publishing business acumen.  She will be attending Prepaid Expo 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada on March 12-14th, and covering the event live. She is a published poet and also maintains a literary blog. She may be reached at vrusso@iirusa.com. Follow her @Literanista.

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